Feb 24, 2016 - Few marketing tchotchkes have done as well as the Staples Easy Button: Sales of the $6.99 gadget passed the one million mark ten years ago. ![]() The 'that was easy' button appears in a Staples television spot. Credit McCann Erickson Editors’ Note: Stuart Elliott is on vacation. You’ll continue to receive the In Advertising newsletter while he’s away, as Jane L. Levere writes the Campaign Spotlight feature. The Q & A and Webdenda are scheduled to return with Stuart, for the Aug. Staples’ Easy Button is the star of the company’s new back-to-school advertising campaign, which uses humor to directly address its customers’ financial worries. The button, a concept invented by Staples’ advertising agency, McCann Erickson, for the 2005, is the centerpiece of three new 15-second spots that begin running in select markets, primarily in the southern United States, on Monday; ads will be introduced nationally Sunday. The original Easy Button campaign depicted challenging tasks that appeared to have no easy solution, like a cowboy wrangling a bucking horse and a father changing his twin infants’ diapers; in each case, pushing an Easy Button bailed out the person in trouble. The voice-over said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easy button for life. Now there’s one for your business. That was easy.”. In each spot in the new back-to-school campaign, the owner of the Easy Button is a mother, shopping, with at least one child in tow, but not at a Staples store. Appalled at the price quoted for her purchase, she pushes her Easy Button, and asks if that would make it any less expensive. Needless to say, the answer is always no. L4D2 'Steam Must be running to play this game ' As i have started the steam also, created account also. Left 4 dead 2 standalone patch 2016. In the first spot, the mother is in her car, with her son, buying gas at a gas station. When the attendant tells her the price will be $92.50, she pushes the button and asks the attendant, “Now, how much is it?” When he repeats the price, she asks him if she can put some of the gas in her tank back. In the second spot, the mother is in a supermarket check-out line, accompanied by two, tall, hungry teenage sons, who share a huge bag of potato chips while she pays for her groceries. Told these cost $319.07, she pushes her Easy Button and asks again for the price. The cashier, who had not previously noticed the sons eating, grabs the potato chip bag from them to scan its price, and tells her the total is now $323.40. ![]() In the third spot, a mother is in a boutique, buying her teenage daughter a pair of fancy blue jeans. When she is told by a snooty young saleswoman that the jeans cost $219, the mother pushes her Easy Button and asks how much the jeans now cost; the saleswoman tells her the button does not work in the store. All ads end by saying, “The Easy Button can save you lots of money, but only at Staples. Everything you need for back to school, at great prices. That was easy.” They also discuss various specials offered each week, with merchandise that costs one cent or five cents, or is even free. According to Shira Goodman, Staples’ executive vice president of marketing, the new campaign is aimed primarily at mothers ages 25 to 45, and secondarily at students. Spots are running on both cable and network television, through August, on programs like “The Today Show” and “CSI.” Although Staples traditionally runs back-to-school advertising, in recent years featuring the Easy Button, the new spots are “more focused on price” than previously, Ms. Goodman said, adding that “in today’s environment, that’s what our customers are worried about.” In addition to the television spots, created by the New York office of McCann Erickson, a unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies, Staples is also running newspaper supplements in major and secondary markets, and online advertising on Web sites frequented by parents and children, like, and. Created internally by Staples, these promote the company’s wide assortment of merchandise as well as weekly special offers. The newspaper supplements will be distributed through August, while Web advertising is running through Sept. Advertisement Although it has made discount offers in the past, Ms. Goodman said these were available on more items this year than previously and were being promoted more frequently. “Prior TV spots put more emphasis on assortment and ease of shopping and a little bit less emphasis on price. Our customers already know we have a great assortment,” she said. The campaign is designed to be “particularly empathetic to what consumers are feeling these days,” added Lee Johnson, an executive vice president of McCann Erickson New York. According to Ms. Goodman, Staples’ budget for the back-to-school campaign will exceed $25 million; she said back-to-school is one of Staples’ two most important sales seasons. In conjunction with the new TV advertising, the company has created two new, limited edition Easy Buttons, one for parents and one for children, each priced at $5.99, with statements both would like to hear. When pushed, the “Easy for Parents” button says “Because you said so,” and “Of course you’re right,” and “Your house, your rules,” while the “Easy for Kids” button says “Go ahead, stay up late,” and “You’re right, they’re wrong” and “Good news, no homework.”.
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